Finding True Wisdom: How Real Experience Transcends Learned Knowledge and Beliefs
The other day, I stumbled upon a thought-provoking question on Instagram’s “Threads”:
“What is the greatest truth you’ve come to know about yourself?”
Responses poured in—answers like, “I’m not this body” and “There is no self other than the thought that thinks of me. We are I.” – Beautiful, profound reflections, resonating with teachings that go back thousands of years to the Rishis, those ancient sages who glimpsed deep truths in the stillness of meditation.
This question lingered with me, sparking its own quiet contemplation.
Today, during this special season of gathering and transition, I felt moved to put my own response into words, as a gentle invitation—perhaps, to anyone reading, and certainly to myself—to sit with it and explore its depths:
“The truth is only the real experience, not the teachings, not the concepts, not the conditioned knowledge, and not the supposed reality. Hari Om Tat Sat.”
For me, these words are not merely a quote; they are a reflection of my path, an insight that has grown within me over time. I’ve come to see that truth isn’t something we can be taught or fully grasp through intellectual understanding alone. Instead, it emerges through presence, through our lived moments, and in that place beyond concepts, it reveals what is real.
In meditation and contemplation, I find myself tuning into Dharma’s quiet wisdom—the natural, harmonious order that aligns us with a universal truth. Dharma is not just a distant ideal; it’s woven into each experience, guiding us toward what is loving, peaceful, and true. Here, truth and compassion are inseparable, both pointing us back to a more authentic way of being.
Through this practice, I encounter love, not as a concept, but as an active force—a compassionate presence that arises when I’m fully here, in the moment. In those rare, clear moments of awareness, inner peace surfaces too, not as a destination, but as a natural state, untouched by external conditioning. With each breath and in each instance of true presence, the noise of “supposed reality” quiets, leaving only the purity of the lived experience.
The mantra Hari Om Tat Sat brings a sacred depth to this realization. It serves as a gentle reminder that true reality—divine and universal—lies beyond our mental constructs and personal perceptions. When I return to this mantra and to the present moment, I reconnect with a truth as ancient as it is immediate, a truth that exists beyond concepts and yet lives within the heart of every experience.
However you choose to name and celebrate today’s day of gathering and transition—Halloween, Samhain, or even Diwali—I wish you all a joyful and reflective time.
Take care and be blessed.
